| The interior life of a Christian presupposes the state
of grace, which is opposed to the state of mortal sin. In the present
plan of Providence every soul is either in the state of grace or in
the state of mortal sin; in other words, it is either turned toward
God, its supernatural last end, or turned away from Him. No man is in
a purely natural state, for all are called to the supernatural end,
which consists in the immediate vision of God and the love which
results from that vision. From the moment of creation, man was
destined for this supreme end. It is to this end that we are led by
Christ who, after the Fall, offered Himself as a victim for the
salvation of all men.
To have a true interior life it is doubtless
not sufficient to be in the state of grace, like a child after baptism
or every penitent after the absolution of his sins. The interior life
requires further a struggle against everything that inclines us to
fall back into sin, a serious propensity of the soul toward God. If we
had a profound knowledge of the state of grace, we would see that it
is not only the principle of a true and very holy interior life, but
that it is the germ of eternal life. We think that insistence on this
point from the outset is important, recalling the words of St. Thomas:
"The good of grace in one is greater than the good of nature in the
whole universe"; (1) for grace is the germ of eternal life,
incomparably superior to the natural life of our soul or to that of
the angels.
This fact best shows us the value of sanctifying grace, which we
received in baptism and which absolution restores to us if we have had
the misfortune to lose it.(2)
The value of a seed can be known only if we have some idea of what
should grow from it; for example, in the order of nature, to know the
value of the seed contained in an acorn, we must have seen a fully
developed oak. In the human order, to know the value of the rational
soul which still slumbers in a little child, we must know the normal
possibilities of the human soul in a man who has reached his full
development. Likewise, we cannot know the value of sanctifying grace,
which is in the soul of every baptized infant and in all the just,
unless we have considered, at least imperfectly, what the full
development of this grace will be in the life of eternity. Moreover,
it should be seen in the very light of the Savior's words, for they
are "spirit and life" and are more savory than any commentary. The
language of the Gospel, the style used by our Lord, lead us more
directly to contemplation than the technical language of the surest
and loftiest theology. Nothing is more salutary than to breathe the
pure air of these heights from which flow down the living waters of
the stream of Christian doctrine.
ETERNAL LIFE PROMISED BY THE SAVIOR TO MEN OF
GOOD WILL
The expression "eternal life" rarely occurs in the Old Testament,
where the recompense of the just after death is often presented in a
symbolical manner under the figure, for example, of the Promised Land.
The rare occurrence of the expression is more easily understood when
we remember that after death the just of the Old Testament had to wait
for the accomplishment of the passion of the Savior and the sacrifice
of the cross to see the gates of heaven opened. Everything in the Old
Testament was directed primarily to the coming of the promised Savior.
In the preaching of Jesus, everything is directed immediately
toward eternal life. If we are attentive to His words, we shall see
how the life of eternity differs from the future life spoken of by the
best philosophers, such as Plato. The future life they spoke of
belonged, in their opinion, to the natural order; they though it "a
fine risk to run," (3) without having absolute certltude about it. On
the other hand, the Savior speaks with the most absolute assurance not
only of a future life, but of eternal life superior to the past, the
present, and the future; an entirely supernatural life, measured like
the intimate life of God, of which it is the participation, by the
single instant of immobile eternity.
Christ tells us that the way leading to eternal life is narrow,(4)
and that to obtain that life we must turn away from sin and keep the
commandments of God.(5) On several occasions He says in the Fourth
Gospel: "He who heareth My word and believeth Him that sent Me, hath
life everlasting," (6) that is, he who believes in Me, the Son of God,
with a living faith united to charity, to the practice of the
precepts, that man has eternal life begun. Christ also affirms this in
the eight beatitudes as soon as He begins to preach: "Blessed are the
poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . . . Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their
fill. . . . Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God."
(7) What is eternal life, then, if not this repletion, this vision of
God in His kingdom? In particular to those who suffer persecution for
justice' sake is it said: "Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is
very great in heaven." (8) Before His passion Jesus says even more
clearly, as St. John records: "Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy
Son that Thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom Thou hast given
Him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (9)
St. John the Evangelist himself explains these words of the Savior
when he writes: "Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it
hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He shall
appear we shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is."
(10) We shall see Him as He is, and not only by the reflection of His
perfections in creatures, in sensible nature, or in the souls of the
saints, in their words and their acts; we shall see Him immediately as
He is in Himself.
St. Paul adds: "We see (God) now through a glass in a dark manner;
but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even
as I am known." (11) Observe that St. Paul does not say that I shall
know Him as I know myself, as I know the interior of my conscience. I
certainly know the interior of my soul better than other men do; but
it has secrets from me, for I cannot measure all the gravity of my
directly or indirectly voluntary faults. God alone knows me
thoroughly; the secrets of my heart are perfectly open only to His
gaze.
St. Paul actually says that then I shall know Him even as I am
known by Him. In the same way that God knows the essence of my soul
and my inner life without any intermediary, so I shall see Him without
the intermediary of any creature, and even, theology adds, (12)
without the intermediary of any created idea. No created idea can, in
fact, represent such as He is in Himself the eternally subsistent,
pure intellectual radiance that is God and His infinite truth. Every
created idea is finite; it is a concept of one or another perfection
of God, of His being, of His truth or His goodness, of His wisdom or
His love, of His mercy or His justice. These divers concepts of the
divine perfections are, however, incapable of making us know such as
it is in itself the supremely simple divine essence, the Deity or the
intimate life of God. These multiple concepts are to the intimate life
of God, to the divine simplicity, somewhat as the seven colors of the
rainbow are to the white light from which they proceed. On earth we
are like men who have seen only the seven colors and who would like to
see the pure light which is their eminent source. As long as we have
not seen the Deity, such as It is in Itself, we shall not succeed in
seeing the intimate harmony of the divine perfections, in particular
that of infinite mercy and infinite justice. Our created ideas of the
divine attributes are like little squares of mosaic which slightly
harden the spiritual physiognomy of God. When we think of His justice,
it may appear too rigid to us; when we think of the gratuitous
predilections of His mercy, they may seem arbitrary to us. On
reflection, we say to ourselves that in God justice and mercy are one
and the same thIng and that there is no real distinction between them.
We affirm with certitude that this is true, but we do not yet see the
intimate harmony of these
divine perfections. To see it, we should have to see immediately the
divine essence, such as it is in itself, without the intermediary of
any created idea.
This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy
and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong,
so absolute a love of God that thenceforth nothing will be able to
destroy it or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall
above all rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and
merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of
the manifestation of His goodness. We shall have entered into His
beatitude, according to Christ's own words: "Well done, good and
faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord." (13) We shall see God as He sees Himself, immediately, without
however exhausting the depth of His being, His love, and His power,
and we shall love Him as He loves Himself. We shall also see our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
Such is eternal beatitude in its essence, not to speak of the
accidental joy that we shall experience in seeing and loving the
Blessed Virgin and all the saints, more particularly the souls whom we
knew during our time on earth.
THE SEED OF ETERNAL LIFE IN US
The immediate vision of God, of which we have just spoken,
surpasses the natural capacity of every created intellect, whether
angelic or human. Naturally a created intellect may indeed know God by
the reflection of His perfections in the created order, angelic or
human, but it cannot see Him immediately in Himself as He sees
Himself.(14) If a created intellect could by its natural powers alone
see God immediately, it would have the same formal object as the
divine Intellect; it would then be of the same nature as God. This
would be the pantheistic confusion of a created nature and the divine
nature.
A created intellect can be raised to the immediate vision of the
divine essence only by a gratuitous help, by a grace of God. In the
angel and in us this grace somewhat resembles a graft made on a wild
shrub to enable it to bear good fruit. The angel and the human soul
become capable of a supernatural knowledge of God and a supernatural
love only if they have received this divine graft, habitual or
sanctifying grace, which is a participation in the divine nature and
in the inner life of God. Only this grace, received in the essence of
our soul as a free gift, can render the soul radically capable of
essentially divine operations, can make it capable of seeing God
immediately as He sees Himself and of loving Him as He loves Himself.
In other words, the deification of the intellect and that of the will
presuppose the deification of the soul itself (in its essence), whence
these faculties spring.
When this grace is consummated and inamissible, it is called glory.
From it proceed, in the intellects of the blessed in heaven, the
supernatural light which gives them the strength to see God, and in
their wills the infused charity which makes them love Him without
being able thereafter to turn away from Him.
Through baptism we have already received the seed of eternal life,
for through it we received sanctifying grace which is the radical
principle of that life; and with sanctifying grace we received infused
charity, which ought to last forever.
This is what our Savior told the Samaritan woman, as St. John
recounts: "If thou didst know the gift of God, and who He is that
saith to thee: Give Me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of
Him, and He would have given thee living water. . . . Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of
the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever. But the water
that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water,
springing up into life everlasting." (15) If one should ask whether
these words of our Lord belong to the ascetical or the mystical order,
the question would seem unintelligent; for, if our Lord is speaking
here of the life of heaven, all the more do His words apply to the
close union which prepares the soul for that life.
St. Thomas says: "He who will drink of the living water of grace
given by the Savior will no longer desire another, but he will desire
this water more abundantly. . . . Moreover, whereas material water
descends, the spiritual water of grace rises. It is a living water
ever united to its (eminent) source and one that springs up to eternal
life, which it makes us merit." (16) This living water comes from God,
and that is why it can reascend even to Him.
Likewise, in the temple at Jerusalem on the last day of the feast
of tabernacles, Christ stood and cried in a loud voice: "If any man
thirst, let him come to Me, and drink. He that believeth in Me, as the
Scripture saith: Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
(17) He who drinks spiritually, believing in the Savior, draws from
the source of living water, and can draw from it not only for himself
but also for other souls to be saved.
On several occasions, as we have already remarked, Jesus repeats:
"He that believeth in Me, hath everlasting life." (18) Not only will
he have it later on, but in a sense he already possesses it, for the
life of grace is eternal life begun.
It is, in fact, the same life in its essence, just as the seed
which is in an acorn has the same life as the full-grown oak, and as
the spiritual soul of the little child is the same one that will
eventually develop in the mature man.
Fundamentally, the same divine life exists as a germ or a seed in
the Christian on earth and as a fully developed life in the saints in
heaven. It is these who truly live eternal life. This explains why
Christ said also: "He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath
everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day." (19) "The
kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say:
Behold here or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within
you." (20) It is hidden there like the mustard seed, like the leaven
which causes the dough to rise, like the treasure buried in the field.
How do we know that we have already received this life which should
last forever? St. John explains the matter to us at length: "We know
that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.
He that loveth not, abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is
a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in
himself."(21) "These things I write to you, that you may know that you
have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God."
(22) Jesus had said: "Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep My
word, he shall not see death forever." (23) In fact, the liturgy
expresses this idea in the preface of the Mass for the Dead: "For to
those who believe in Thee, Lord, life is only changed, not taken
away"; on the contrary, it reaches its full development in heaven. All
tradition declares that the life of grace on earth is in reality the
seed of glory. St. Thomas delights also in saying: "For grace is
nothing else than a beginning of glory in us." (24) Bossuet often
expresses himself in the same terms.(25)
This explains why St. Thomas likes to say: "The good of grace in
one is greater than the good of nature in the whole universe." (26)
The slightest degree of sanctifying grace contained in the soul of an
infant after baptism is more precious than the natural good of the
entire universe, all angelic natures taken together included therein;
for the least degree of sanctifying grace belongs to an enormously
superior order, to the order of the inner life of God, which is
superior to all miracles and to all the outward signs of divine
revelation.(27)
The same supernatural life, the same sanctifying grace, is in the
just on earth and in the saints in heaven. This is likewise true of
infused charity, with these two differences: on earth we know God not
in the clarity of vision, but in the obscurity of infused faith; and
besides, though we hope to possess Him in such a way as never to lose
Him, we can lose Him here on earth through our own fault.
In spite of these two differences pertaining to faith and hope, the
life is the same because it is the same sanctifying grace and the same
charity, both of which should last forever. This is exactly what Jesus
said to the Samaritan woman: "If thou didst know the gift of God. . .
thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him. . . . He that shall drink of
the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever: but the
water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water,
springing up into life everlasting." (28) By the light of this
principle we must judge what our interior life should be and what
should be its full, normal development that it may be the worthy
prelude of the life of eternity. Since sanctifying grace, the infused
virtues, and the gifts are intrinsically ordained to eternal life, are
they not also ordained to the mystical union? Is not this union the
normal prelude of the life of eternity in souls that are in truth
completely generous?
AN IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCE
From what we have just said, we may at least infer the
nonextraordinary character of the infused contemplation of the
mysteries of faith and of the union with God which results therefrom.
This presumption will be more and more confirmed in what follows and
will become a certitude.
Sanctifying grace and charity, which unite us to God in His
intimate life, are, in fact, very superior to graces gratis datae
and extraordinary, such as prophecy and the gift of tongues, which are
only signs of the divine intervention and which by themselves do not
unite us closely to God. St. Paul affirms this clearly,(29) and St.
Thomas explains it quite well.(30)
Infused contemplation, an act of infused faith illumined by the
gifts of understanding and wisdom, proceeds, as we shall see, from
sanctifying grace, called "the grace of the virtues and the gifts,"
(31) received by all in baptism, and not from graces gratis datae
and extraordinary. Theologians commonly concede this. We may,
therefore, even now seriously presume that infused contemplation and
the union with God resulting from it are not intrinsically
extraordinary, like prophecy or the gift of tongues. Since they are
not essentially extraordinary, are they not in the normal way of
sanctity?
A second and even more striking reason springs immediately from
what we have just said: namely, sanctifying grace, being by its very
nature ordained to eternal life, is also essentially ordained, in a
normal manner, to the proximate perfect disposition to receive the
light of glory immediately. This proximate disposition is perfect
charity with the keen desire for the beatific .vision, an ardent
desire which is ordinarily found only in the union with God resulting
from the infused contemplation of the mysteries of salvation.
This contemplation is, therefore, not intrinsically extraordinary
like prophecy, but something eminent which already appears indeed to
be in the normal way of sanctity, although relatively rare like lofty
perfection.
We must likewise add that the ardent desire for the beatific vision
is found according to its full perfection only in the transforming
union, or the higher mystical union, which consequently does not seem
to be outside the normal way of sanctity. To grasp the meaning and
import of this reason, we may remark that, if there is one good which
the Christian ought to desire keenly, it is God seen face to face and
loved above all, without any further possibility of sin. Evidently
there should be proportion between the intensity of the desire and the
value of the good desired; in this case, its value is infinite. We
should all be "pilgrims of the Absolute" "while. . . we are absent
from the Lord." (32)
Finally, as sanctifying grace is essentially ordained to eternal
life, it is also ordained to a proximate disposition for us to receive
the light of glory immediately after death without passing through
purgatory. Purgatory is a punishment which presupposes a sin that
could have been avoided, and an insufficient satisfaction that could
have been completed if we had accepted with better dispositions the
sufferings of the present life. It is certain, in fact, that no one
will be detained in purgatory except for sins he could have avoided or
for negligence in making reparation for them. Normally purgatory
should be spent in this life while meriting, while growing in love,
instead of after death without merit.
The proximate disposition to receive the light of glory immediately
after death presupposes a true purification analogous to that in souls
that are about to leave purgatory and that have an ardent desire for
the beatific vision.(33) This ardent desire exists ordinarily in this
life only in the union with God which results from the infused
contemplation of the mysteries of salvation. Hence contemplation
stands out clearly even now, not as an extraordinary grace,
but as an eminent grace in the normal way of sanctity.
The keen desire for God, the sovereign Good, which is the normal
proximate disposition to the beatific vision, is admirably expressed
by St. Paul: "Though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man
is renewed day by day. . . . For in this also we groan, desiring to be
clothed upon with our habitation that is from heaven. . . . Now He
that maketh us for this very thing, is God, who hath given us the
pledge of the Spirit." (34)
Obviously, that we may treat of questions of ascetical and mystical
theology in a fitting manner, we must not lose sight of these heights
as they are made known to us by Holy Scripture explained by the
theology of the great masters. If there is a field in which men must
be considered not only as they are, but as they ought to be, that
field is evidently spirituality. One should be able there to breathe
freely the air of the heights above human conventions. Blessed are
those tried souls who, like St. Paul of the Cross, breathe freely only
in the domain of God and who aspire to Him with all their strength.
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1. See Ia IIae, q. 1 13, a.9 ad 2um.
2. At the
beginning of a treatise on the interior life, it is important to get a
high idea of sanctifying grace; Protestantism, following several
nominalists of the fourteenth century, has lost the conception of it.
In Luther's opinion, man is justified not by a new infused life, but
by the exterior imputation of the merits of Christ, in such a way that
he is not interiorly changed and that it is not necessary for his
salvation that he observe the precept of the love of God above all
else. Such an opinion is a radical misconception of the interior life
spoken of in the Gospel. This lamentable doctrine was prepared by that
of the nominalists, who said that grace is a gift which is not
essentially supernatural, but which morally gives a right to eternal
life, like paper money which, though only paper, gives a right, by
reason of a legal institution, to receive money. This doctrine
constituted the negation of the essentially supernatural life; it was
a failure to recognize the very essence of grace and of the
theological virtues.
3. Even in the Phaedon, the future is thus represented.
4. Matt. 7: 14.
5. Ibid., 19: 17.
6. John 5:24; 6:40, 47, 55.
7. Matt. 5:3-8.
8. Ibid., 5: 12.
9. John 17: 1-3.
10. See I John 3:2.
11. See I Cor. 13: 12.
12. St. Thomas, Ia, q.12, a.2.
13. Matt. 25:21, 23.
14. St. Thomas, Ia, q.12, a.4.
15. John 4: 10-14.
16. Commentum in Joannem, 4:3 ff.
17. John 7:37 f.
18. John 3:36; 5:24, 39; 6:40,47,55.
19 John 6: 55.
20. Luke 17:20f.
21. See I John 3: 14 f.
22. Ibid., 5: 13.
23. John 8: 51.
24. See IIa IIae, q. 24, a. 3 ad 2um; Ia IIae, q.69, a.2; De
veritate, q. 14, a.2.
25. Meditations sur l'evangile, Part II, 37th day, in Joan.
17: 3.
26. See Ia IIae, q. I 13, a.9 ad 2um.
27. Ibid., q. II I, a. 5: "Gratia gratum faciens is much more
excellent than gratia gratis data"; in other words, sanctifying grace,
which unites us to God Himself, is very much superior to prophecy, to
miracles, and to all the signs of divine intervention.
28. John 4: 10-14.
29. See I Cor. 12:28 ff.; 13:1 ff.
30. Cf. Ia IIae, q. III, a.5: "Gratia gratum faciens is much
more excellent than gratia gratis data."
31. See IIIa, q.62, a. 1.
32. See II Cor. 5:6.
33. St. Thomas gives a good explanation of this keen desire for God
which the souls in purgatory have. (We shall return to this point
later on when we speak of the passive purifications.) Cf. IV Sent.,
d.21, a.1 ad quaestionem 3am. "The more a thing is desired, just so
much the more is its absence painful. And because the love, by which
the highest good is desired after this life, is most intense in holy
souls, because love is not held back by the weight of the body, and
also, because the time of enjoying the highest Good has now come,
unless something impedes it, for the very same reason they suffer to a
great degree from the delay." Thus we would suffer greatly from hunger
if deprived of food for more than a day, when it would be in the
radical order of our organism to restore itself. It is radical to the
order of the life of the soul, in the actual economy of salvation, to
possess God immediately after death. Far from being essentially
extraordinary, this is the normal way, as we see it in the lives of
the saints.
34. See II Cor. 4: 16 ff.; 5: 1 ff.
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